Unsung Team

Marc Cisco has had many great teams while at Monroe Jefferson. His teams have won 7 Huron League Championships and qualified for the playoffs 9 times. Perhaps his best team other than his 1994 State Championship team was a team that never got a chance to play in the State Playoffs.

The 1983 Jefferson Bears won the Huron League and finished the season a perfect 9-0 record. Back then only two teams from each region made the playoffs. The Bears were 3rd in their region and missed the playoffs by the slimmest of margins. It was too bad, many thought the Bears were capable of winning it all. The Bears had an excellent defense led by junior Mike Williams and the offense was led by a punishing running game. The thing that separated this team from many other Bear teams was a the QB/TE combination of Mike Dick and Todd Miletti. Even though the Bears threw the ball less than 10 times a game there was a good chance this combo would hook up numerous times. Miletti ended the season with 576 receiving yards and that Bear season record still stands.

The Bears only had 3 close games that year. A 19-16 affair with rival Monroe Catholic Central, a 19-14 squeeker over an excellent Grosse Ile team and an overtime thriller against an upstart Flat Rock team 20-13. The Bears deserved a shot to be in the playoffs that year and I’m sure Cisco sometimes wonders what may have been if they had been given the opportunity.